Why can't EA get this game right?

[ipushmycar]

I do not understand why EA can't seem to get this game to play right, both for online and offline play.

Offline, the CPU plays keep-away like no other. They pass and pass with laser speed and precision. Even after turning the CPU pass sliders all the way down, their passes are still too fast and still too tic-tac-toe. I cannot even finish a single game offline... it is not fun and quite frankly extremely unrealistic.

Online has even more problems. The goalies are too inconsistent- your team's goalie may let by everything that slides his way, meanwhile the opponent goalie is a wall. I have lost plenty of games where I double, triple, even quadruple my opponents shots... and my shots are great attempts. Well set-up cycling plays, quick 1-timers, shots from the point, deflections, rebounds, the works. Yet still, nothing gets by the goalie. And other times, I'll have games where I score over 7 goals. It seems that the biggest factor in determining a win or loss is the play of your goalie.

Additionally, I strongly feel that there is some sort of advantage given to one of the teams online. I have been playing NHL 10 regularly since its release... and even regularly since NHL 08's release. I know the game, and I KNOW when I see an advantage. Sometimes I get the advantage, sometimes the opponent, sometimes neither. But when it's nearly impossible to take the puck from the opponent, and the opponent takes your puck without even needing to press poke/check/lift, and this is prominent throughout the entire game, it's not difficult to see an advantage... and quite frankly when an advantage is given, the disadvantaged player is NOT going to have a fun time.

I do not claim to be a god at this game, however I know what works and what doesn't. I know when I lose due to being out-skilled, and I know when I lose due to some BS advantage. I am sick of the inconsistency of this game- it's an inconsistency I have never had a problem with in NHL 08/09. Every tuner update seems to mess up the game even more.

I truly do not know how EA doesn't see these problems. I have a few friends whom also play this game religiously, and they agree with me 100%. I apologize for this rant, however I just got done playing one of the most BS games I've ever seen. It was literally like watching pee-wee play team Canada.

[Roggie]

Re: Why can't EA get this game right?

I cannot disagree with the online advantage sometimes. I notice it most in club games, where my team's forwards are losing the puck from every single poke check, while I'm poke checking on defense to no avail. I'm not saying every one of mine should work, just every once in a while in those games it should. And I've been on both sides of this. It's boring to play in a game like this.

Also, I've seen the games with the goalie being awful and another team being amazing in goal. I've had a goalie in a tryout game for a top club on my team let in 5 shots that would never be allowed, while the other goalie had 4 saves after flipping over after stacking the pads.

[SinisterAlex]

Re: Why can't EA get this game right?

Additionally, I strongly feel that there is some sort of advantage given to one of the teams online. I have been playing NHL 10 regularly since its release... and even regularly since NHL 08's release. I know the game, and I KNOW when I see an advantage. Sometimes I get the advantage, sometimes the opponent, sometimes neither. But when it's nearly impossible to take the puck from the opponent, and the opponent takes your puck without even needing to press poke/check/lift, and this is prominent throughout the entire game, it's not difficult to see an advantage... and quite frankly when an advantage is given, the disadvantaged player is NOT going to have a fun time.

I cannot disagree with the online advantage sometimes. I notice it most in club games, where my team's forwards are losing the puck from every single poke check, while I'm poke checking on defense to no avail. I'm not saying every one of mine should work, just every once in a while in those games it should. And I've been on both sides of this. It's boring to play in a game like this.

Also, I've seen the games with the goalie being awful and another team being amazing in goal. I've had a goalie in a tryout game for a top club on my team let in 5 shots that would never be allowed, while the other goalie had 4 saves after flipping over after stacking the pads.

I've seen this also, especially in club games. We would play a team and their CPU defence would start playing like they were Lidstrom or Orr and ours would play like some crappy D-Man like Shane O'Brien.... The goalies are the same.

What they need to do is re-write the AI code, not alter it, RE-WRITE it from the ground up. Don't give CPU's boosts to certain things while in the game to help them, if they're getting slattered during the 1st period, don't let them all of a sudden start playing like they're all Wayne Gretzky's of the world. For example, I've noticed on the PP, when the CPU is PKing, when they get the puck it's like they're 100% impossible to get the puck back. I would attempt a blatant stick lift that should've worked, and it didn't. You can't hit them cause they just skate around you...

Maybe they should take a year off to completely start from scratch, even though that would never happen...

[McLean 25]

Re: Why can't EA get this game right?

I definatly agree with you guys. The online experience is incredibly un-realistic. Everything from the customisation to the gameplay. I was so excited when this game was coming out, but it has definatly turned into a huge disapointment.

First of all, the customisation of your character is just stupid. Whats with the "gold" crap and the cheesy sticks and helmets and all the other crap. I don't know why EA can't just stick with the real life stuff to make the game look like NHL not B.S.L

As for the gameplay, its even worse, (Online Team Play that is). The gameplay is so un-realistic. The amount of crap from the cherry-picking, traping, and all of the other crap that you never find in any NHL game is rediculous. I wish I could play a game on OTP where you can actually skate at a profesional speed, the checking is way out of whack, and the goaltending is incredibly uncusistent and stupid.

It definatly was not my money worth.

[savoie2006]

Re: Why can't EA get this game right?

The thing with online play is it's generally NOT the game, but users that make it an unpleasant experience. The fact that over 90% of the online players are only concerned about stats and winning, even it means using AI exploits to do so, instead of playing the game like the sport is actually played. This is why online sucks. As for offline, I just wish they could make it feel more natural and less scripted. The Cpu tries the same thing on offense everytime down the ice and goalies pretty much force you to score only a few different ways. OS even wrote an article on this issue.

[tgalv]

Re: Why can't EA get this game right?

play high pressure tight point strategy to eliminate some of the endless cpu passing. if you play a non-aggressive strategy they will just pass the puck around forever and bore you to death.

i'd like them to increase the shot power a bit for online play. i think it would make the game more interesting at the expense of some additional cheese shots which you already see anyways.

[tgalv]

Re: Why can't EA get this game right?

and i agree that all games aren't played on an even playing field. offline it's meant to be that way, but i've always thought it carried over to online play as well. it seems better than 09, but sometimes you'll get awesome AI players or the worst guys on the planet. i don't know if it's actually part of the game or just lag or something else, but it's frustrating and i don't think it's just all in our minds seeing things we want to see.

[Gosens6]

Re: Why can't EA get this game right?

When it comes to playing offline. Iv'e found that playing on hardcore mode, all-star level provides the most realistic results. I know some people say harcore mode is to "hard". But if you want real hockey, I suggest you guys try it out.

[kerosene31]

Re: Why can't EA get this game right?

I have absolutely no proof of this, but my theory is that there is random "your team is flat" logic built into the game offline and online.

The hint when you are in this mode is when you win a draw to your d-man and the other team's wingers are on you before you can even move the puck.

Play 5 or more quick games offline with the same teams over and over. At least once your team will feel like they are skating in slush. I don't play a lot of online games other than EASHL, but there sometimes your CPU guys just don't "have it" that night.

I suppose it is realistic in a way, but can also be frustrating.

[henson]

Re: Why can't EA get this game right?

I just wish they would put more effort into hockey. I just dont think the feel like hockey is going to really bring in that much money compaired to NFL,NBA,NCAA. <object classid="clsid: D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0" width="16" height="16" id="movie" align=""><param name="movie" value="http://forumsmiles.com/content/5/mov.swf"><param name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><embed allowScriptAccess="always" src="http://forumsmiles.com/content/5/mov.swf" quality="high" bgcolor="#ffffff" width="16" height="16" name="movie" align="" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"</embed></object>

[armi5718]

Re: Why can't EA get this game right?

Advantage online feels like it is there for sure. A few days ago I played an online versus game against a guy who was using the habs. I was using the Capitals. Now, I have played hockey since I was a freaking child and so I know how to work the puck in the zone and get shots away and this kind of thing, my opponent did not. At the end of the 1st period the shots were 15-1 washington and the score was 1-0. During the 1st I was able to skate, pass and shoot at the same level as the habs guy. During the second though, everything changed. All of the sudden my players, even a well rested line, were slower than his skaters. My passes were errant and my shots were swallowed up by Price. I figured that this was an intimidation issue so I put the 4th line out and had a bout or two, the play remained the same. Second period shots were still on my side but, instead of the 15-1 ration they were more along the lines of 10-7. The increase in shots was directly linked to my players' speed and awareness on the ice being different from the 1st period. By the end of the game I had ended up giving a goal up and scoring one back but the shots had become more or less equal which was odd seeing as how I could easily handle this player in the 1st period when everything felt level as far as player skating and skills.

My conclusion is that there was some sort of handicap mechanism that was triggered by outplaying this kid so much in the 1st. I have come to this conclusion based on the results of this game and of PREVIOUS games that I have played where I have experienced a similar phenomenon. I am starting to believe that, based off of stats level or score or whatever, there is some sort of handicapping agent in play while online. Can't prove it, Redshirt said this didn't exist but, I mean we are all seeing this aren't we? We who have played this game year in and year out are all experiencing similar game-play issues, we who know the game of hockey as well as the EA game. I wish that we would have our developer interaction back. So many questions about so many aspects of this game and we are left in the dark after our questioning became too intense for the devs. We are left to only speculate about causes of game-play issues. It's a shame.

[plaidchuck]

Re: Why can't EA get this game right?

I think the overall problem online is simply a case of all the team's and player's ratings being all too similiar (at least I hope the ratings matter that much). That and the online tuners and difficulty level raises the goalies stats waaay too high. Basically unless it's a cross crease pass or breakaway deke only 1 out of about 20 regular shots are gonna go in against the goalie. You'll notice if you actually play sim people especially on 1 on 1 versus that the game will always be close. In fact I had three straight 0-0 game's that went to the shootout on 1 vs. 1.

Overall there is a problem in the gameplay engine of players being able to turn around too fast and skate backwards too fast, thus eliminating good scoring chancing and odd-man rushes, but that is a whole other can of worms. I would hope they'd tweak this in future versions but I highly doubt they are gonna change anything with the engine on the current gen. Only thing you're gonna see is more animations most likely.

[SinisterAlex]

Re: Why can't EA get this game right?

Overall there is a problem in the gameplay engine of players being able to turn around too fast and skate backwards too fast, thus eliminating good scoring chancing and odd-man rushes, but that is a whole other can of worms. I would hope they'd tweak this in future versions but I highly doubt they are gonna change anything with the engine on the current gen. Only thing you're gonna see is more animations most likely.

I HEAVILY agree with this, trying to dump and chase is 100% impossible due to players being able to skate to fast. Mason Raymond should easily outskate Chara or Brashier or anyone who can't skate... its ridiculous.

They also need to be able to make us tell apart amazing players from the crappy ones. Ovechkin looks like Ryan Kesler or Saku Koivu...

I seriously think EA should step back and look at their game, ever since 08 it seems like they are full of themselves and don't seem to listen to what people want. Be a GM mode, it's just Be A Pro's "card" system and a new draft.... big deal. People wanted online franchises... but they're not going to do that.

[armi5718]

Re: Why can't EA get this game right?

I HEAVILY agree with this, trying to dump and chase is 100% impossible due to players being able to skate to fast. Mason Raymond should easily outskate Chara or Brashier or anyone who can't skate... its ridiculous.

They also need to be able to make us tell apart amazing players from the crappy ones. Ovechkin looks like Ryan Kesler or Saku Koivu...

I seriously think EA should step back and look at their game, ever since 08 it seems like they are full of themselves and don't seem to listen to what people want. Be a GM mode, it's just Be A Pro's "card" system and a new draft.... big deal. People wanted online franchises... but they're not going to do that.

We all know that EA needs to change some basic things about this game so that progress can be made. Sadly, we all know that they won't touch this cash cow until the milk runs dry. I doubt NHL 11 will be anything different than the 08 clones.

[SinisterAlex]

Re: Why can't EA get this game right?

We all know that EA needs to change some basic things about this game so that progress can be made. Sadly, we all know that they won't touch this cash cow until the milk runs dry. I doubt NHL 11 will be anything different than the 08 clones.

Sadly yes....